Opinion: Björn Beckman, 1938-2019: A Life of Struggle and Friendship, By Jibrin Ibrahim
An important pathway to democratic politics, he shows, has been organised around popular resistance to the structural adjustment programmes all over the continent.
Björn Beckman had one epistemological concern that guided his life work: He wanted his associates and friends to have a better understanding and appreciation of the African state. He was concerned that too much writing on the African state was superficial and descriptive. There were too many tales of corruption and mismanagement by the ruling classes and too little analysis of social forces and processes.
An important pathway to democratic politics, he shows, has been organised around popular resistance to the structural adjustment programmes all over the continent. His core commitment was that the evolution of class forces was presenting important opportunities for the emergence of popular democracy and progressives should not miss the train. His political standpoint was that we should stop lamenting about the state.
Professor Björn Beckman was important to us because of his deep commitment to African development. He immersed himself in the successive radical struggles of the 1980s and 1990s and beyond. He was a central pillar in the coterie of comrades who defined pathways for resistance to imperialism, neo-colonial and national exploitation and oppression. By the same token, he was a determined comrade engaged in the struggle for liberation, workers’ rights and women’s rights.
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